Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1887-11-26

No more unique, distinctive, and at the
same time popular character stands before
the people to-day than Ella Wheeler
Wilcox.
Born in q Wisconsin village some thirty
odd years ago, when Wisconsin was moi
much more than frontier state. without
infueuti&l friends or family, and without
money, she made for herself name il
literature which commanded attention
before she was eighteen years Old. To
one who knows It in detail her history
reads lie fairy story. Reared on &
western prairie, she is en- ornament to
the most brilliant circles OF the metrOp-
oils
She had never seen en- editor or literary
person and knew nothing CT the methods
Of getting into print when, at fourteen,
she read her first production TO the press
| The New York Mercury published these
childish efforts which were written in
prose and under NOM de-plumes.
It declined the first poem she ever sent
| for publication, and the editor sarcastic
slly advised her to "crush her ambitions
to be a poet"
The Waveriy Magazine has the honor
| W UC luC Ii ~ W piSSS lAS IoLuO VA A1lIG
| Wheeler 10 the public.
Frank Leslie sent her the first check
she ever received at seventeen years Of
age.
From that tine to the present day she
has never swerved nor faltered in the
steady, hard climb toward success.
She never sent manuscript III her life
| for criticism and never asked for sid or
lo-
During the last fifteen years Ella
Wheeler has probably been the most crit
| icised, abused, praised, misconstrued and
| admired woman in tie literary world.
Without particle OF effort to create O
sensation, everything she has in that
time written has had the effect CT stirring
up criticism.
Her writings seem to be possessed Of q
certain something combustible in their
composition, thst on striking outer sir
invariably rends it with more or less Of
| an explosion.
Her first published book was "Drops Of
Wster." s collection OF juvenile temper
ance verses. These were crude but filed
with the dramatic enthusiasm which has so
permeated her later work, and provoked
praise and censure in proportiorate Quan-
titles from the contending forces on the
liquor question.
'Shells," little volume now out Of
print, comes next.
"Maurinne," By many considered her
finest work, and the famous Poems Of
Passion which set the literary world on
fire, followed within three years Of each
other.
Columns Of abuse and praise items rid
iculing and euloeizipg the latter volume
filed all the papers in the country.
Some of her friends urged her to sup
press the book after its first appearance,
but strong in the coursge Of her convic-
tons, she read the severe and unjust re-
views through tears, not unmixed with
smiles st sight OF the golden coins which
punctuSted the comments of the critics.
Many of these dollars were spent IN
building home for aging parents, and
much of the halo now surrounding this
remarkable woman's life is the reflection
of the generous deeds OF her early monied
life.
Milwaukee people gave her "beneflt"
in MAY, 1888, when she was made the sub
ject of q speech by United States Sens
tor and was presented with china basket
containing $500 in gold.
Long before her hsppy marriage in Msy,
1884, with the elegant and cultivated gen.
-tleman who brought her to the east, her
sherue was household word and she was
welcome guest IN the best circles Of the
gres northeast.
To her rare genius were added unusual
graces OF person. She was a brilliant
and tactful talzer, a good dancer, and 8